Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Trust responsibility? What trust responsibility?

The Bureau of Indian Affairs withdrew an objection to the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan to pump billions of gallons of water in Spring Valley, home to the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, for use in Las Vegas. The BIA withdrew their objection on behalf of the Goshute Tribes, without consulting or notifying them.

Catherine Wilson, acting regional Bureau of Indian Affairs director, predicted that the Water Authority pumping will have few effects on the Indian lands and that in any case, the federal government should go along with what looked to be inevitable.

10 Comments:

I love that you're asking questions to clarify scale. "Is that a lot or a little?" is one of my favorite questions in the world.

According to the article in the link (I have no personal knowledge about Nevada water) it is enough to dry up springs and 'cause environmental damage. The usual fear is that once the pipeline is built, in a severe drought how could you ever stop the city of Las Vegas from pulling more heavily out of the Valley? And once they're taking more water, would that go back down to pre-drought levels after the drought ends?

Everytime I've flown into that strange city I'm amazed by all the undeveloped areas that already have outlines of where the streets and house lots will be. Southern Vegas is a desert - we weren't meant to live there. It's embarrassing to be human sometimes.

That was probably what the BIA told those silly Indians that have been living there for hundreds of years. (Wikipedia tells me that the first Europeans in the area came to convert Paiutes who were living in what is now downtown Las Vegas.)

I'm willing to wager that not a single person who reads this blog lives in the African savannah so talk of where were and weren't meant to live seems misplaced.

Well how else are we supposed to keep the Bellagio fountains pumping high and mighty to the tune of "Proud To Be An American?" Water evaporates fast out here, ya know?! Especially when shot 200 feet in the air!

Bellagio fountains and long hot showers in every hotel room and lawns. All over residential Vegas there are lawns. Same as Southern California. It makes my head explode, all these perfect lawns full of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and sprinkler systems.

And then some wiseass ecology expert comes by Greene Acres and lectures me about my lawn because he is mad that Las Vegans have lawns. I don't water or fertilize the very small lawn that we use for picnics at Greene Acres. It is a good lawn. It is hearty and prickly and lives off of what comes with the rains.